Saturday, September 30, 2017

preCalculus 2017-2018: Sequences & Series (September)

preCalculus 2017-2018:
Sequences & Series 
(September)

Chapter 12 ScreenCasts
We talked about Sequences & Series in general, Recursive Sequences, Arithmetic Sequences, Finite Arithmetic Series, Geometric Sequences, Infinite Geometric Series and The Binomial Expansion Theorem. 

 Can you believe that CC Algebra II students were not exposed to Factorials, Combinations, Permutations or Probabilty? 

 I encourage students to follow my TI84 or my SAGE ScreenCasts, it's their choice!
We usually start the school year reviewing all of Trigonometry since CC Algebra II doesn't do it justice anymore! However, September was all about CH12: Sequences & Series. Why? Because we're going to introduce a bit of Python Coding using SAGE WorkSheets on CoCalc.com! Python is an easy to learn and powerful programming language with the List Data Structure that makes coding sequences a snap!

This year I'm trying something new:
MCQ Mondays
SAGE Tuesdays
YouTube Wednesdays
Think Pair Share Thursdays
FRQ Fridays

MCQ Mondays will start in October. Even months we will do practice MCQ Exams using Formative Assessments via Socrative. On odd months we will have actual Mock MCQ Exams as Summative Assessments.

SAGE Tuesdays will make use of Pythonic Math reasoning whenever possible, instead of the TI84C. 

My YouTube Wednesdays are infamous for STEAM related Filks as well as month-long documentaries (10-15 inutes each Wednesday).

Think Pair Share Thursday is a review day. Students get into groups of 2 or 3 with a WhiteBoard to help each other complete HomeWork questions they had trouble with.

FRQ Fridays occur at the end of every 2-3 week unit. On Friday I give a preTEST review sheet. We go over it in Think Pair Share sty. The real TEST, similar to the preTEST, is then given at the end of the period as a TakeHome Exam due the following Tuesday.

 Last, but not least, I'm starting each month with a Filk for YouTube Wednesday. For the next several months, we'll be concentrating on the infamous Tom Lehrer. Remaining Wednesdays each month will be devoted to educational STEAM related  documentaries from PBS (Nova) and National Geographic (Star Talk TV).

1st YouTube Wednesday: Tom Lehrer

September YouTube Wednesdays
Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 
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Computer Science 2017-2018: Bits, Bytes & HelloWorld (September)

Computer Science 2017-2018:
Bits, Bytes & HelloWorld 
(September)

Bits&Bytes (LAB00) ScreenCasts

HelloWorld (LAB01) ScreenCasts




We are moving right along with our Java Boot Camp! We are covering Chapters 1-7 very quickly, highlighting the most important topics only. Once we cover the basics, we will go back and cover everything in more detail. During Java Boot Camp we are using javac, java, javadoc and an ASCII editor in a Linux shell aka a CLI environment. 

When we are done with Java Boot Camp, we will switch to more graphical projects using Processing, which is based on Java, in a GUI environment. 

We are also trying out Cloud9 for the first time this year. Now students can login from home and see their classroom desktop on their home PC and finish any LabWork they need to without going to extra help! I think this is great for practicing our coding skills. Students should be reading and writing code a little bit every single day!

LAB00 is new this year. We had a lot of hardware issues at the beginning of the year, so I started with Bits&Bytes instead. This unit is all pencil and paper based as it's just positional arithmetic. I usually talk about this topic later in the year. Now my students know all about Binary, Hexadecimal and arithmetic is other bases. So, our YouTube Wednesday this month was all about "The Martian" movie. 

LAB01 is all about getting used to our setup and writing several variations of Hello World. We're using Chapter01 from Horstmann's text. All the labs about main classes, main methods, println() and String.
This year I'm trying something new:
MCQ Mondays
Processing Tuesdays
YouTube Wednesdays
Think Pair Share Thursdays
FRQ Fridays

 MCQ Mondays will start in October. Even months we will do practice MCQ Exams using Formative Assessments via Socrative. On odd months we will have actual Mock MCQ Exams as Summative Assessments.

 Processing Tuesdays will make use of a Java compiler from Processing.org that makes it easy to do graphical applications!  

 My YouTube Wednesdays are infamous for STEAM related Filks as well as month-long documentaries (10-15 inutes each Wednesday).

 Think Pair Share Thursday is a review day. Students get into groups of 2 or 3 with a WhiteBoard to help each other complete HomeWork questions they had trouble with.

 FRQ Fridays occur at the end of every 2-3 week unit. On Friday I give a preTEST review sheet. We go over it in Think Pair Share sty. The real TEST, similar to the preTEST, is then given at the end of the period as a TakeHome Exam due the following Tuesday.

 Last, but not least, I'm starting each month with a Filk for YouTube Wednesday. For the next several months, we'll be concentrating on the infamous Tom Lehrer. Remaining Wednesdays each month will be devoted to educational STEAM related  documentaries from PBS (Nova) and National Geographic (Star Talk TV).

1st YouTube Wednesday: Tom Lehrer



September YouTube Wednesdays
Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 
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Calculus 2017-2018: Limits & Derivatives (September)

Calculus 2017-2018:
Limits & Derivatives 
(September)

UNIT02 ScreenCasts

 UNIT03 ScreenCasts

We are really flying through our review of the AP Calculus AB material! September was all about UNIT02: Limits and UNIT03: Derivatives. I don't do UNIT01 anymore as it's just PreCalculus Review! I'll cover those skills as needed! 

 We talked about basic 2-sided limits and even developed the limit of the secant line slopes as deltaX approaches 0.

 We developed the Algebraic Laws of Differentiation. We played with the Power Rule, Trig Rules, Product Rule, Quotient Rule and Chain Rule. We even talked about the derivatives of e^x and ln(x). Finally we worked with Implicit Differentiation and Related Rates!
This year I'm trying something new:
MCQ Mondays
SAGE Tuesdays
YouTube Wednesdays
Think Pair Share Thursdays
FRQ Fridays

 MCQ Mondays will start in October. Even months we will do practice MCQ Exams using Formative Assessments via Socrative. On odd months we will have actual Mock MCQ Exams as Summative Assessments.

 SAGE Tuesdays will make use of Pythonic Math reasoning whenever possible, instead of the TI84C. 

 My YouTube Wednesdays are infamous for STEAM related Filks as well as month-long documentaries (10-15 inutes each Wednesday).

 Think Pair Share Thursday is a review day. Students get into groups of 2 or 3 with a WhiteBoard to help each other complete HomeWork questions they had trouble with.

 FRQ Fridays occur at the end of every 2-3 week unit. On Friday I give a preTEST review sheet. We go over it in Think Pair Share sty. The real TEST, similar to the preTEST, is then given at the end of the period as a TakeHome Exam due the following Tuesday.

 Last, but not least, I'm starting each month with a Filk for YouTube Wednesday. For the next several months, we'll be concentrating on the infamous Tom Lehrer. Remaining Wednesdays each month will be devoted to educational STEAM related  documentaries from PBS (Nova) and National Geographic (Star Talk TV).

1st YouTube Wednesday: Tom Lehrer
September YouTube Wednesdays



Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 
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Friday, September 15, 2017

BSHS 2017-2018 Week 1: Welcome Back!

BSHS 2017-2018 Week 1:
Welcome Back!

It's our first week of classes back from Summer! Tuesday was all about Seating Charts and Book Cards and Syllabi and the Original Sound Track of a A Beautiful Mind playing in the background. I tried posting everything I could on Edmodo so as not to kill trees and have time to start a lesson! PreCalc and AP Calculus BC were amazed by SAGE. AP CompSci almost managed to log into the server from class, begin HelloWorld.java!
Wednesday was our first YouTube Wednesday. Of course, we had to start with Tom Lehrer's New Math with an explanation of base 8 numbers and positional arithmetic!
I know it's not YouTube Wednesday, but Thursday I had to start with the "Frozen PreCalc" Filk by one of my students. She wrote this filk to show that even though you may struggle at first in this class, there is hope if you work at it!
Friday was a regular day of class but we did celebrate Star Trek Day 9/8/17. This day marks the 51st anniversary of the live broadcast of the first ever Star Trek episode on a Thursday night on NBC at 8:30 pm! I am told that I saw it live when I was 4 years old....

OK, here's some of the handouts from the first day:
Well, that's all folks!
A. Jorge Garcia

 
Applied Math, Physics & CompSci
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Friday, September 1, 2017

BSHS 2017-2018 Day 1: Tech & Decor

BSHS 2017-2018 Day 1:
Tech & Decor
It's our first day back from Summer, yeah!

We're all alone here this week without the little darlings. This week, we only have 1 day of meetings, meetings and then more meetings?

There's already a full schedule of meetings planned for today, Friday, 9/1/17. I had to come in early, leave late and skip lunch just to decorate my room.

Also, the tables, chairs, PCs and cables were all in dissarray with no power or networking! Guess who had to fix all that. The networking is an IT issue outside my control (ie outside my room). I hope networking gets fixed fast. I want to start coding with my students their first day back!

Somehow, I put Humpty Dumpty back together again before the students arrived on Tuesday 9/5/17!

I wish I had some before and after pictures so you could see the difference. Here's how the room turned out:
FRONT LEFT CORNER
Flag + WhiteBoards
FRONT
SmartBoard + QuadCores
FRONT RIGHT CORNER
Mascot + FractalPrint
LEFT SIDE
AC + NewShades
RIGHT SIDE
Analog Clock + New Chairs
REAR RIGHT CORNER
sftp Linux Server + New Graphics
REAR
Bulletin Boards + New Teacher PC
REAR LEFT CORNER
Slide Rule + Box With New AC Unit
UPDATE: NEW DECOR (Display Case):
Featuring ChromeCast & Processing!


UPDATE: NEW DECOR (Room 429):
Featuring Tapestry from RedBubble!



Well, that's all folks!
A. Jorge Garcia

 
Applied Math, Physics & CompSci
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